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Ethnic & religious
map of Poland before the Nazi invasion
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
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this Article About
the Author Bibliography/Sources
Below is a detailed map of
the ethnic, religious, and linguistic demographic populations
of Poland before the Nazi invasion in 1939. It is extremely
important in that the role of ethnicity played a large role
in the German initiation of World War II itself. It shaped
not only the behavior of the nationalistic Polish state as
well as the Germans. The scans are from the superb Polish,
Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian history The
Concise History of Poland, by Jerzy Lukowski
and Hubert Zawadzki.
Ethnic, religious, and
linguistic background and its role in the Nazi invasion:
Poland today is incredibly
homogeneous in terms of ethnicity, language, identity, and
religion. Previously, Poland had sizable Ukrainian, German,
ethnic Jewish (Ashkenazim), and Lithuanian minorities that
all struggled for either autonomy or complete divorce from
Poland after that nation was re-established in 1918 upon the
fall of the Russian Empire. The north of modern Poland was
for centuries dominated by the ethnic Germans of the Teutonic
Order and its subsequent German successors in Poland, the
Kingdom of Prussia and reunified Germany. See our article
on the 800-year legacy
of the Teutonic Order for more thorough background. After
World War I, the Treaty of Versailles stripped Germany of
the periphery of Prussia. As a result, post-war Poland had
a large German minority that had great nationalistic attachment
to Germany and absolutely no desire to remain subjects of
the far-right nationalist government of Poland under Pilsudski
and Moscicki. Hitler demanded that Poland forfeit Danzig,
with its overwhelmingly German population [1], to be "returned"
to the Reich. Germany's reaction to invade Poland to re-annex
the seized lands of German Prussia obviously played a significant
role in starting the worst war the world has ever known. After
the war, the entire German race was expelled from Poland and
Czechoslovakia by Stalin in one of the most severe and yet
completely unknown genocides of the century, over 8,000,000
civilians (see my essay here).
Poland's eastern marches
had significant Lithuanian and Ukrainian minorities. Vilnius,
Lithuania's modern capital, was populated overwhelmingly by
Poles. The nationalist government of Poland under Pilsudski
then invaded Lithuania and annexed their capital, which moved
to Kaunas. To the southeast in Galicia, a huge percentage
of the population was Ukrainian Orthodox, a population which
bitterly hated and continues to hate the Poles. In reaction
to their revolt, Poland's ethnic nationalist government banned
the Ukrainian language. Ukraine, which gained independence
from Russia in 1918 in three ephemeral Ukrainian states, also
had a large Polish population. The same Polish government
that invaded Lithuania to liberate its Polish minority also
conquered western Ukraine (Galicia). When the Germans destroyed
Poland and its Ukrainian regions, the Ukrainians actively
joined the incoming Germans and slaughtered ethnic Poles in
mobs, leading to ethnic cleansings that only complimented
the horrendous fate that the Polish nation would endure throughout
the war and in the forests of Katyn, where at least 2,000-10,000
Polish officers were executed by the Soviets.
Also significant was, of
course, Poland's Jewish population. Although small in the
national proportion, there was a huge Jewish population in
Krakow, Bialystok, and Lwow. By the end of the war, there
would be almost none. See the map below for statistics on
the ethnic Jewish (Ashkenazim) of Poland.
After the war, all Germans
were expelled from Prussia, Prussia was seized from Germany
and given entirely to Soviet Poland, and the eastern 1/3 of
Poland was incorporated into the Soviet Union and its Polish
population completely expelled westward.
As is clear, the inter-ethnic
conflict and the political struggles of minority groups in
Poland significant shaped the evolution of the 20th century.
Click the below map
for the full-size version! Click on the map again to zoom.
If an error has been made,
please notify the EHL Staff.
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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The image is a two-page scan
from the superb Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian
history book The Concise History of Poland,
by Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki.
[1] Lukowski, Jerzy, and
Hubert Zawadzki. A Concise History of Poland. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Page 224.
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